Recommend Any Free VST Plugin Instruments?

First of all, I'd recommend re-installing Sonar 8.5 Producer. That way you'll get all your VST instruments back for use in Cakewalk by Bandlab.
 
As far as free ones, there's loads about.
 
I personally like these:
 
http://www.dskmusic.com/
 
Elektrostudio used to do a fantastic range of free analog emulations, but the website seems to have gone. You can get them at http://www.vst4free.com/index.php?dev=Elektrostudio - actually http://www.vst4free.com is a great resource for loads of free VSTs.
 
One of my favourite free VSTi's is Cobalt by Leslie Sanford. It's a bit like a Korg DW8000 / Kawai K3 crossover:
http://www.lesliesanford.com/vst/plugins/
 
GTG synths are also not bad:
http://www.gtgsynths.com/plugins.htm
 
You can get a free Yamaha XG synth here: http://veg.by/en/projects/syxg50/
 
Note that most of these are 32 bit. I've personally not had issues with this, but some of them might not play well with Cakewalk's BitBridge. Investing in JBridge is a good option.
 
 

Dexed - very good Yamaha DX7 emulator. Not quite as hard to program as the DX7, but still very complicated - FM synthesis tends to be like that. Luckily it comes with a lot of DX7 patches.

+1 on the KVR site.
 
Plus check out Bedroomproducer dot com.
They have a running list of free plugins and instruments
 
bedroomproducersblog.com/free-vst-plugins/
 

bitflipper
OBXD is a pretty good Oberheim emulation, easy to use and 64-bit. Not a lot of presets available, but it's so easy to program you really don't need them.

This is cool, I didn't know about this. Lacking modulation matrix leaves it bit short for my use, but I've installed it. Meant to be CPU friendly and not having an FX section is a plus for me. 

Free synths? I also like OB-Xd and Dexed mentioned above. But then there are PG-8X and Latte(unfortunately 32-bit only). Those ones have also real good sounds.
 
On the other hand if you do not like to invest too much time in creating your own patches (like me), then I recommend to buy Arturia's Analog Lab. It includes hundreds of patches of most of the great analog hardware synths of the past, I really like it!
 
Marc

I would say for the sheer number of free patches available, it is hard to beat Dexed (based on Yamaha DX-7) and Synth1 (based on Nord Lead).
 
Synth1 has about 15,000 free patches available, and Dexed can load any DX-7 patches.
 
The Amplesound P-Bass and Acoustic Guitar that Kamikaze mentioned are excellent, as well as the free Addictive Keys
Grand Piano (only 4 octaves, but works very well on a 49 key controller)!
 
The OB-Xd is a must have Oberheim emulation!  No on-board FX, but that's what FX chains in your DAW are for!
 
The free synths from U-he (designer of Zebra, Diva, and Hive), such as Zebralette and Tyrell N6 are also must haves!
 
There are also free versions of Native Instruments Kontakt and Reaktor, as well as free versions of IK Multimedia SampleTank 3 and Syntronik.  All of these each come with a limited factory library with no expiration, so check them out!
 
For free drums, I think that MT Power Drumkit 2 is a good go-to option. https://www.powerdrumkit.com/
 

jude77
Yikes!  I posted a link to warez site!  I thought it was legal, honest.  I've deleted it.

 Funny   That was a good one!!!

Tyrell N6, new version 3, is a substractive synthesis virtual instrument which is very complete for a freeware.

It features 2 oscillators (sine/tri/saw/square for the first one, saw/square for the second) plus a sub (square), plus a noise generator (white or pink). To modulate the oscillators, there are a vibrato, a “pulse width” (which only affects the squares), a soft sync (which only works if the oscillators are detuned), a ring modulator with feedback. Oscillator 2 can be detuned. There’s a portamento, and that of oscillator 2 can be set offbeat for strange results.

There’s a ringing filter that can be BP or LP/HP (you can get gradually from LP to HP using a MixSpread pot, providing unusual effect sounds in the in-between positions). Slope can be set to 12, 24 or 36 dB-per-octave. Great possibilities of filter modulation.

Then there are 2 LFOs which parameters themselves can be modulated, 2 ADSR envelopes (which can also be modulated) and a matrix. The latter allows to apply a frequency modulation from oscillator 1 to either oscillator 2 or the filter, and to route two controllers to a same parameter (with one modulating the other).
Finally, there is a single effect – a chorus, which is well enough. To finish with this overview, let’s mention that Tyrell can work in mono, legato, duo, poly and unison 2-to-8 (detonable) voices modes.
As far as I know, there’s no manual for Tyrell N6. I regret it as I would have appreciated some precisions regarding some, say, “original” functionalities such as the Drift (an analog model emulation perhaps?) and Fallrise (on envelopes, that has the sound back up after decay).

This freeware is very stable.

All in all, we get a synth that’s quite powerful for a freeware. The ring modulator, feedback and FM on the second oscillator allow to get rather original sounds. But what makes this Tyrell interesting also are its modulation and control allocation capacities (by the way, all parameters can be MIDI-controlled using the MIDI learn feature). Hence, you can get beyond the “factory” 500 presets.

Tyrell N6 is one of the most complete freeware synths you can get on a Mac (but of course it also works on PC). Of course, if you already own Absynth, Massive, Predator, Gladiator or others, Tyrell may not bring you much. Still, even in such a case, there’s always use for a small, quick-to-program synth such as this of Elek7ro. Anyway, a penniless homestudist will always find such synths very useful as their quality makes them a really great deal.
By the way, Tyrell’s maker U-HE also offers numerous great products such as the Zebra synth or the great Uhbik plug-in series. As for Tyrell, it’s available here:
https://www.amazona.de/amazona-de-freeware-synthesizer-tyrell-n6-v3/